In certain programming languages that are either object-oriented or support some aspects of object-oriented programming, such as JavaScript, function variables are stored in a temporary storage location, such as a temporary object, that resides in a portion of memory known as the heap. The heap memory is a pool of memory that is available to be allocated and used dynamically by applications and other processes, for example to store and access values used by such applications and other processes. By contrast, in certain other programming languages function variables are stored in the “stack” portion of memory. Typically, the time and/or other resources required to access a variable stored in the stack are less than the time and/or other resources required to access such a variable from a temporary object or other structure in the heap.